Volkswagen’s flagship brand delivered fewer electric vehicles last year amid greater competition with rivals in China putting Europe’s largest carmaker under pressure to hit the continent’s tougher emissions rules.
The VW brand delivered 383,100 all-electric vehicles in 2024 compared with about 394,000 in 2023 – a 2.8 per cent fall. Globally, it delivered 4.8 million vehicles, down 1.4 per cent as those in China fell 8.3 per cent. Group-wide figures are expected to be released next week.
“Around the globe, 2024 was a difficult year with sluggish economic activity, political challenges and intense competition, particularly in China,” Martin Sander, who leads sales, marketing and aftersales at VW’s passenger car business, said in a statement on Thursday.
With lower sales in its biggest markets, VW had earlier threatened unprecedented plant closures in Germany. But in December, it withdrew the threat after fraught negotiations with its powerful works council, resulting in a far less ambitious deal to save €4 billion in annual costs through steeper production cuts.
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Analysts expect VW to face an even tougher environment this year with carmakers required to sell an ever greater number of EVs to meet the EU’s 2025 carbon emissions standards, which will impose limits on how much a carmaker’s fleet can emit.
In EU filings this week, Stellantis, Toyota and Ford expressed their intent to pool carbon emissions with Tesla in an effort to comply with the new regulations.
UBS analyst Patrick Hummel said the pooling agreement puts more pressure on VW and Renault to comply with the EU regulations through organically selling more EVs. The battery-powered vehicles are more expensive than petrol counterparts, forcing carmakers to offer discounts to convince consumers to make the switch.
The bank estimated that such pressures could reduce VW’s earnings before interest and taxes by up to 10 per cent. “The worst case of paying fines could likely cause significantly higher financial cost,” Mr Hummel added.
The year-end deal has reduced the short-term risk of further worker strikes at VW plants, but the management is still expected to continue with tense and lengthy negotiations with its works council to deliver its pledges for aggressive cost cuts to investors.
Germany, in particular, was hit hard by a decline in EV sales after the government scrapped subsidies for buyers. As a result, Britain overtook Germany as Europe’s largest market for electric cars for the first time in 2024.
EVs accounted for 19.6 per cent of new cars sold in the UK, although that was still below the 22 per cent target required by the UK’s electric vehicle quota scheme.
On Thursday, Stellantis said it reached the UK’s EV sales target after it sold more than 39,000 electric cars last year, representing a 59 per cent year-on-year increase. – Copyright The Financial Times
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